Fritz excited about direction of Iowa Speedway

Doug Fritz watched Iowa Speedway's progress from afar, and now he is thrilled to be ushering the track into a new era.

Fritz took over as Iowa Speedway's Chief Executive Officer on Oct. 1, and is in charge of the track's strategic initiatives, events and facilities development and capital reinvestments. He is anxious to make the Newton track a destination for both fans and the elite series they want to watch.

"We can chart our own territory," said Fritz, who replaced Jerry Jauron after he resigned in Septemeber to take a general manager job with a company in Urbandale. "We're excited about what lies ahead.

"The key for us is to provide the best guest experience we possibly can at the race track. ... We're going to provide a great product for them to watch good racing."

The 2012 has already been released and it includes the signature IZOD IndyCar Series Iowa Corn Indy 250 (June 23), two NASCAR Nationwide Series races (May 20 and Aug. 4) for the second straight year and two NASCAR Camping World  Trucks Series events (June 23 and Sept. 15). Next season will be the first time  for the venue to host two Truck Series events, extending its season with the addition of the late summer date.

Fritz said fans have demanded a longer season, calling the Iowa a great part of the country that has very passionate and supportive auto racing followers.

"We're starting in mid-May and running through mid-September. We're basically running one race weekend a month," Fritz said. "We're getting what the fans want. The fans want racing and we're going to provide racing for them."

Fritz has held his new role for a little more than a month, but he has heard the cry from fans about what they would like to see in the future. Of course, that would be a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

He said he would love to see that dream come to fruition, but the problem is the lack of open dates on the schedule. NASCAR doesn't seem interested in expanding the schedule, and the track would have to create a partnership with a track that has multiple existing dates or have a track drop out of the schedule to slide into a spot.

"It's not going to be easy," Fritz said. "If you've seen the history of dates moving to locations it's a challenge. The biggest challenge is 52 weeks in a calendar year and NASCAR has 36 races in a year and they've made it pretty clear at this point they are not looking to expand the number of races in a season.

"The question is where is it going to come from."

Fritz has 22 years of experience in motorsports. He served as a Senior Director of Marketing and Business Development at NASCAR for almost a decade. He previously served as President of Richmond International Raceway for more than 11 years, resigning in July. He has known the Clement family, which purchased Iowa Speedway this summer, since the early 1990's when he began developing a strong working relationship with the members of Conrad Clement's family.

"The timing felt good," Fritz said about the change. "I knew the family and it was just a good opportunity. There's not question about the successes that the track has had in six years of racing. It's pretty impressive and I'm just excited about being part of the future of Iowa Speedway."

Watch for Fritz as a guest of the Sports Desk to be posted Friday at

www.kcrg.com and

www.thegazette.com